The Creativity/Convenience Paradox

Digging down in the bowels of my Macbook, I found this gem of a rant written by an old copywriting bossman. Mind you, this was probably written around the turn of the millennium. And I think there’s still a lot of truth here. Take a look:

It’s all about thinking.

You’d think with all the thinking going on that ignorance would be an endangered species.

The fact is, I believe most people don’t care enough about anything to give it any real thought at all. It just makes us feel better to think we are. Most of the real thinking is being recycled by computers. Generating ideas has been replaced by virtual archeology.

Creativity is falling victim to convenience. Inspiration is at the mercy of bandwidth.

Before long, the only real innovators, the only real pioneers, the only real creatives will be the people in the shadows. The people who start from ground zero and create something from nothing out of pure need and a life-changing understanding.

And it will be more valuable. More revolutionary. More meaningful…than anything the rest of us can imagine.